Dordogne or French Alps?

Neither has a sea coast, but the Alps give you much better swimming. Lake Annecy is clear and warm in high summer, with grassy public beaches and jetties at Sévrier, Talloires and Menthon-Saint-Bernard, and Évian and Thonon have pebbly lidos looking across Lake Geneva to Switzerland.

In the Dordogne you swim from gravel banks in the river below Beynac or La Roque-Gageac, with canoes passing by, or at small lakes such as Rouffiac. After rain the rivers turn high and brown, and most visitors end up using the pool at their rented house.

The Dordogne eats slightly better, and food is a bigger part of the trip there. Duck and goose, foie gras, walnuts, cèpes and winter truffles fill the markets of Sarlat and Périgueux, and Bergerac's estates add reds and the sweet whites of Monbazillac.

The Alps answer with melted cheese: fondue, tartiflette, Beaufort and Reblochon from the farm, plus perch from the lakes and Savoie whites. Their top end is stronger, with highly decorated kitchens around Lake Annecy, Megève and Courchevel. Both menus get repetitive within a week.

This is where the Dordogne pulls clearly ahead. The Vézère valley holds the Lascaux replica, the original painted cave at Font-de-Gaume and the National Museum of Prehistory in the cliff at Les Eyzies. Add Sarlat, the castles of Beynac and Castelnaud and the bastide of Monpazier, and the region is a sightseeing trip in its own right.

The Alps have good things to see, including Annecy's canals and island prison, the dukes' château at Chambéry, Grenoble's fine-arts museum and Briançon's Vauban walls. They fill rainy days, but nobody plans an Alpine trip around them.

The Alps win, but only in winter. From December to April, Val Thorens, Val d'Isère and Méribel dance on tables at the slope restaurants and move on to clubs until the small hours. In summer the life moves down to Annecy's lakeside terraces and Grenoble's student bars.

The Dordogne has nothing comparable at any season. A summer night market with communal tables and a dance floor in the square is about as late as it gets, and the villages are quiet by eleven.

These are very different landscapes, and the Alps are among the great ones. You can ride from Chamonix to the Aiguille du Midi among the glaciers, walk the Tour du Mont Blanc, watch ibex in the Vanoise or ski the Trois Vallées. Paragliding over Lake Annecy and cycling over the Galibier fill the summer.

The Dordogne is soft, farmed country of limestone cliffs, walnut orchards and wide rivers. Its best day out is a canoe trip past La Roque-Gageac, with Marqueyssac's gardens above. It is lovely for gentle walking and cycling, but it has nothing for a serious hiker.

Both are well placed for day trips, though the outings are different. From the Dordogne they are more of the same countryside done beautifully: Domme on its clifftop, Rocamadour about an hour from Sarlat, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in the Lot, and Saint-Émilion or Bordeaux from the Bergerac side.

The Alps cross borders. Geneva is under an hour from Annecy, ferries run from Évian to Lausanne and the Lavaux terraces, and the Mont Blanc tunnel puts Aosta within reach of Chamonix. In the deep Tarentaise ski valleys, though, the choice thins out.

The Alps suit more ages. French ski schools take children from snow-garden age, car-free resorts such as Avoriaz and Flaine let families walk to the slopes, and summer brings the rack railway to the Mer de Glace, marmots and shallow beaches on Lake Annecy. Altitude, cold mornings and ski kit wear out the smallest children, though.

The Dordogne is a classic summer for eight-to-fourteen-year-olds, with siege engines and armour at Castelnaud, cave visits and canoeing. Toddlers get less from it, and pushchairs struggle on the castle steps.

You will want a car in both, so this is close, but the Alps have more alternatives. Trains run well to Annecy, Chambéry and Grenoble and climb to Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Chamonix, and in a ski resort the lifts link whole valleys. The weak points are the Saturday changeover queues and the need for snow chains.

In the Dordogne, buses into the valleys are sparse and the sights are scattered, but the roads are quiet for most of the year. In high summer the riverside road through Beynac jams and Sarlat's car parks fill on market day.

The Alps have more to shop for, though most of it is specialist. Chamonix is one of Europe's best places for technical climbing and ski gear, Courchevel and Megève carry luxury fashion and jewellery, and Opinel knives and Beaufort make good things to take home.

The Dordogne's shopping is the food you put in the car boot: foie gras, walnut oil and Bergerac wine from the markets at Sarlat, Issigeac and Ribérac. Summer brocantes add some antiques, but there is no fashion shopping.

The Dordogne is plainly the cheaper trip. Prices are those of rural France, and set lunches, market produce and simple gîtes keep a week reasonable. The main extras are summer houses with pools near Sarlat and the entry fees that add up for a family.

A ski week in the Alps costs far more once you add lift passes, ski hire, ski school and on-mountain lunches, and Courchevel or Val d'Isère are among Europe's costliest places to stay. Summer, smaller villages and towns such as Grenoble bring prices back down.

Neither is a destination for performances, but they differ in timing. The Dordogne's live arts come almost entirely in summer: Sarlat's theatre festival in the old-town squares, Périgueux's mime and street-theatre festival, and classical concerts in Romanesque churches.

The Alps have a year-round base in Grenoble, with a large arts centre and a chamber orchestra, and in summer there is chamber music at Évian and concerts in mountain churches. In ski season, the entertainment is mostly bands at the après-ski bars.

The Alps have a real spa tradition, and the Dordogne has none. Aix-les-Bains and Évian are grand old thermal towns, Saint-Gervais has baths in a gorge below Mont Blanc, and smaller spa towns such as Brides-les-Bains exist for the cure itself. Ski hotels add hot tubs facing the snow.

The Dordogne relaxes you through its pace instead: long lunches, a farmhouse pool and quiet villages, best in the Périgord Vert and in September. In August, the crowds around Sarlat undo much of that calm.